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Homemade sweet treats are always good, especially homemade torrone! What is torrone? Well, this Italian Christmas candy with roasted nuts is sweet, chewy and delicious. Italian nut nougat is also simple to prepare. Famous soft torrone comes from Alba, Siena, Cremona, and Benevento, but you can make your own white nougat which is just as tasty with almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or pecans.
An Italian nougat recipe is perfect around Christmas time and other holidays. It makes one of the best gifts nobody can resist its chewy, sticky texture.
Also try berry cheesecake tart, lemon mascarpone cake, puffed wheat squares, almond cake, choc hazelnut torrone, or Boston cream poke cake.
Honey and citrus are key components of Christmas-style Italian nougat candy. Nuts are widely used and you can choose from almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or pecans in your toronne recipe. Mixed nuts would be good in this Italian candy too.
Italian nut nougat can be hard or soft and medium-sweet or very sweet. You can even find chocolate covered white nougat in Italy. Store-bought or homemade torrone is typically served after lunch or dinner around Christmastime.
Many Italian families serve it with mandarin oranges or with dried dates or figs. Once you know how to make torrone, you will want to make this perfect edible gift all the time. This soft nougat recipe is easy and delicious!
If there is any left over after the festivities, it can be chopped and used in cheesecake, semifreddo or sprinkled over ice cream. Chocolate torrone and homemade nougat is really versatile, another reason to make your own Italian candy!
What is Nougat Exactly?
Nougat and torrone are different terms for the same thing. But what exactly is traditional torrone and what’s the best way to make this sweet confection known as a torrone candy recipe?
Similar to meringue in terms of ingredients, not texture, nougat is served by itself or as part of candy bars and other desserts. It various from light and airy to chewy and stiff.
It’s made with egg whites, honey (sometimes sugar instead of honey, or both) and fruit and/or nuts. Ingredients like whole almonds and edible wafer paper are often used in Christmas nougat.
Nougat-making goes back hundreds of years in the Middle East and Europe. It might not be the easiest dessert to make but it’s not hard as long as you have the right ingredients and equipment. You will need a layer of wafer paper and a candy thermometer for the perfect torrone too. I am all the details for how to make nougat here!
Is Torrone Nut Nougat Gluten Free?
Yes, torrone is gluten free. That is one of the great things about the simplicity of this recipe, another bonus being nougat ingredients are easy to find.
Italian Christmas Candy with Roasted Nuts Ingredients
Honey and sugar make this homemade torrone beautifully sweet, while vanilla and lemon zest add gentle flavours. In addition you need wafer paper, egg whites, and salt.
Finally, you will need nuts, and can use whole almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or pecans, or a combination.
What is Wafer Paper?
Also known as rice paper or nougat paper, this paper is starch-based and made with starch from rice or potatoes. A sheet of wafer paper will be stiff and slightly see-through. This edible paper is safe to eat and doesn’t have much of a flavour so you can use it in dessert recipes. It doesn’t add any scent or flavour to your confections.
You’ve probably had wafer paper if you’ve had traditional macaroons. It’s sometimes used to decorate fancy cakes, perhaps shaped into pretty edible petals and assembled to look like a flower, for example. You can also use it in Christmas candy recipes like this torrone recipe.
You can get wafer paper from baking supply stores or order it online. As well as being used to decorate macaroons and cakes, it’s good to keep moisture out of homemade torrone nougat and other candies. Use it to make wrappers for small Christmas candy recipes.
How to Prepare Italian Nut Nougat
The first step in making white nougat is lining a baking dish with plastic wrap and then with some wafer paper. Beat the egg whites with salt until they form soft peaks.
Melt the sugar and honey in a pan on the stove and then add it gradually to the egg white mixture. The longer you boil the sugar mixture the firmer your Italian nougat candy will come out.
Add in the vanilla and lemon zest and keep mixing until the mixture thickens up. The, add in the nuts and then pour the mixture over the wafer paper in the baking dish. Add more wafer paper on top and press it down.
When the soft torrone is cool you can cut it into pieces with a sharp knife, wrapping the pieces individually if you like.
How to Store Homemade Torrone
This Italian nougat candy keeps for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container somewhere dry and cool. Don’t refrigerate soft torrone because the moisture will make it ‘weep’ and negatively affect the flavour.
You can also freeze it for up to a month. Chop it up first so you only have to thaw as much as you need. Make sure that it is in a very airtight container.
White Nougat Variations
Feel free to tweak the ingredients in this torrone candy with roasted nuts. You can sub orange or lime zest for the lemon zest. Also choose any kind of nuts you prefer. I find that almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or pecans are good in Italian nougat candy.
Another Italian torrone variation would be swapping the vanilla extract for another flavour. Some kind of nut extract would be good and add to the nutty flavour. Or you could blend pink food colouring into half the nougat mixture or experiment with green and red food colourings for Christmas!
Homemade Torrone FAQs
Yes! It is an edible sheet of paper, known as wafer paper and you can eat it.
To cut soft torrone nougat, use a serrated edge knife to cut the nougat when cooled. Lightly oiling the knife can also help to cut it cleanly.
Nougat and torrone are different terms for the same thing.
Find these cookies and others in my holiday cookie box
Almond Nougat Candy for the Holidays
Homemade Torrone Italian Nut Nougat
Ingredients
- 2 Sheets wafer paper , cut to fit 8×8 pan
- 12 Ounces honey, I used pale acacia honey for a light-colored result
- 1 2/3 Cup granulated sugar
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 Dash salt
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract , I used clear for a light-colored result
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 3 Cups nuts, roasted almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or pecans
Instructions
- Prepare a 9” square baking dish (or similar size) by lining it with plastic wrap, ensuring the bottom and sides are fully covered. Cut both sheets of wafer paper to fit the size of your baking dish. Place one sheet of the wafer paper into the bottom of the dish, set the other piece aside for later.
- Take the room temperature egg whites and beat them with a dash of salt in a stand mixer until you achieve soft peaks. Keep them in the stand mixer for later.
- Take a medium to large sized heavy-bottomed pot, and add your honey and sugar in. Stir this mixture on medium heat until it has reached 300 degrees F.
- Once your sugar mixture has reached 300 degrees, remove from heat and immediately bring it over to the stand mixer. With the mixer on medium high stream in about 3 Tablespoons of the hot sugar mixture, let it fully combine with the egg whites and whip for a few moments before slowly streaming in the remaining sugar mixture.
- Add in the lemon zest and vanilla extract. Pay close attention to how thick the mixture is getting as it cools, continue to whip it until the sides of the bowl are cool enough to keep your hand on it for 10 seconds, when this happens add in the nuts and give it one good mix to combine then shut it off. However, if the mixture is getting too thick before the bowl is cool enough to keep your hand on it, add the nuts in and stop mixing at any point. (Note: It takes about 30 minutes to cool down).
- Working quickly, pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish, on top of the wafer paper. Gently spread as evenly as possible. You can use a lightly greased spatula to spread the nougat if needed.
- Top the nougat with the second wafer paper sheet. Gently press everything down tightly and flat, trying to get as flat and level of a top as you can – you can use the bottom of a cup or ramekin to help smooth it out if needed.
- Let cool at room temperature.
- When ready, carefully turn the torrone out onto a cutting board. Remove the plastic wrap and use a long serrated knife to cut the torrone into desired sizes.
Notes
Nutrition
I really love homemade Italian torrone around the festive season. Torrone Italian candy is always so good as an after-dinner treat and makes a change from cookies. Torrone candy is sure to become a holiday tradition that the whole family will love.
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
Came out great. Tastes just like the Torrone i used to buy.
Thought my KitchenAid stand mixer was going to give up…it was fine though.
I would cook it longer to make it more stiff. Looking forward to these treats!
Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome, hope you enjoy it!
Everything goes well. The cool down part until the bowl is cool for 10 seconds is more like 30-40 min. I think a proper time would be helpful otherwise it will melt.
Hi, the recipe says to cool it until you can keep your hand on the bowl for 10 seconds, not to cool it for 10 seconds. But I’ll add your timing to the recipe so people know how long it’ll take. I hope yours came out delicious.
This was easy enough to make but it did not work. After complete cooling it’s still really soft and sticky. Not edible at all. No way I could cut it it’s way too soft like heated marshmallows. What happened? I feel like I waisted a lot of expensive ingredients. 3 cups of nuts and 12 ounces of honey is probably close to $25.
It sounds like there are a few potential issues that could have caused your torrone to turn out too soft and sticky. Here are some suggestions:
Humidity: High humidity can affect the texture of the nougat, causing it to remain soft even after reaching the correct temperature.
Cooking temperature and beating time: Nougat can be tricky to make, and the cooking temperature and beating time must be precisely right. The mixer should be running long enough that it sounds like it’s about to give out – that’s when you know it’s about right. Beat the mixture until it is very, very thickened before scraping it out of the bowl.
Here are some ideas for soft nougat:
Drying out the mixture: You could try putting the pan of torrone in a low oven (175°F) for about two hours. This may help the mixture dry out and become firm enough to slice after cooling.
Dipping in chocolate: I have heard that too-soft nougat is perfect for dipping in chocolate, which could be a tasty way to salvage the batch.
Tried it with a silicone candy bar mold sprayed lightly with oil will make 24 candy bars had to work fast , put rice paper on top to smooth and press into mold. After cooling put into the freezer for about 20 minutes to release easier from the mold. Then once out of mold trimmed the bottom edge for a clean bar look.
Thanks for this info! I will have to try this way one day too
Mine for some reason is like a light brown / beige color how is yours so white ? I used regular honey and granulated sugar
I used acacia honey and extra-light (almost clear) vanilla extract for a light result.
You could also have had the temperature too hot or cooked it to long to cause some carmelization.
Can you use pasteurized egg whites from a carton?
Yes you can use the liquid ones in a carton or even reconstituted powdered egg whites for torrone. I also find the egg whites from a carton are great for making really stable meringues!
Wondering if I can use a silicon candy bar mold instead of edible paper?
I haven’t tried this myself, so I’d like to know how it comes out! If you do try the candy bar mold, grease it very lightly first.
Hello, may I ask if you can subscribe granulated sugar for brown or cane sugar please? Thank you looking forward to making this.
Yes you can. It will add a subtle caramel flavor and make the torrone a bit darker in color.